by Claver Nyuki
The much hyped MDC Alliance demonstration to challenge the legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday largely turned out to be a non-event after that party’s leadership seemed to backtrack on its earlier stance and now seemed receptive to holding talks with the ZANU PF leader.
In the run up to the demonstration, the message communicated was that the MDC will be demonstrating against President Mnangagwa and calling for his immediate resignation as they claim that Chamisa had the majority vote despite the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the Constitutional Court declaring President Mnangagwa the winner.
Listening to Chamisa during his address at the Africa Unity Square yesterday in Harare, one cannot help to wonder if Chamisa has made a complete U-turn after confessing that there is need for dialogue.
The MDC through its poster boy, Alex Magaisa have been hammering on the issue of legitimacy, alleging that President Mnangagwa is occupying the highest office in the land illegally.
Chamisa and his cronies claim that they got more than 2.5 million votes in the recent Presidential elections and that Chamisa should have been declared the winner. Even after exercising their Constitutional right to challenge the results in Court which they lost, the MDC moved to claim that the ConCourt panel was captured.
Now that the MDC demo has come and gone, one huge factor we take away from it is that Chamisa should overcome his ego and recognise President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the legitimate leader of Government in Zimbabwe if dialogue is to take place.
The fact that Chamisa has seen the need for dialogue should also translate into a climb-down on his purported legitimacy issue as, there is no way that President Mnangagwa would dialogue with someone who does not recognise him.
Since the July 30 harmonised elections, Chamisa and the MDC leadership have been adamant that there shall not be any dialogue and that President Mnangagwa should step down for Chamisa, bearing the phrase ‘majiggies angu’ by Chamisa.
The MDC demo yesterday, more than anything has shown us that Chamisa is confused and desperate and is just looking for a way to sneak into Government via the backdoor.
If Chamisa was sincere in his appeals for dialogue, then he should swallow his pride and accept he was defeated by President Mnangagwa in the 30 July election.
